


Where the Love Light Gleams

by BroadwayBaggins



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Tree, F/M, Mother-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 05:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8832295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/pseuds/BroadwayBaggins
Summary: Jed Foster gets a package.





	

If Mary were here, she’d laugh at the way Jed was looking at the package on the coffee table as if it were going to explode at any moment. She would flop next to him on the couch and brandish a pair of scissors, telling him to either get a move on and open it or she’d do it herself. She would giggle at the way he had carried the box into the house, at arm’s length and triple-checking the address to make sure it was right, but she would also understand just why this package was making Jed uneasy. She would have understood why just seeing the handwriting on the address label made him tense, and she would be there to hold his hand as he opened it up and prepared to face what was inside.

For a moment, Jed considered holding off, waiting until Mary’s shift ended to open the package. But before he knew it, he found himself reaching for the scissors and slicing into the thick packing tape. He tore it open gently, obscuring Ezra’s handwriting on the address label as he opened it to a sea of styrofoam packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and a hastily scrawled note from his brother.

_Here you go, man. Merry Christmas_.

Jed sighed, reaching for the letter and moving it to the side. Before he could summon the courage to dig through the contents, he grabbed his phone instead. He had to search rather far back to his last text message from Ezra–a quick Thanksgiving greeting from several weeks before.

_Hey Ez. Package just came. Anything I need to be aware of?_

He only had to wait a few minutes for a reply.

_**mostly just decorations, just like mom said. can’t talk much, have PT appt in 10.** _

_How is that going?_

_**slow but steady! try not to let mom get to you. l8er**._

There were no more texts, and Jed sighed. Although the package had been addressed by Ezra, his brother had let him know last week that their mother was planning on sending a box of old Christmas ornaments of Jed’s. His relationship with his mother had never been great, and the events of the past year–Ezra’s injury and rehabilitation, Jed breaking off his engagement to Eliza (who, according to Facebook, was going by the name _Liz_ in her new life in California) had sent an already rocky relationship into a tailspin. His marriage to Mary had been the last straw. Two months ago, they had married quickly in between surgeries in the tiny hospital chapel, with Hopkins officiating and Emma and Sam as witnesses. Jed, as a last-minute peace offering, had invited Ezra and his mother to the wedding reception the following week to celebrate. Ezra had been struggling with his physical therapy and had been unable to make the trip–his injured leg was the right one, so he couldn’t drive, and their mother refused to come. Ezra had Face-Timed with Jed and Mary, but Jed had not spoken to his mother since she had gotten the news.

A Fed-Exed box of Christmas ornaments, all of them Jed’s favorites, seemed to have confirmed what Jed had long-suspected–in his mother’s eyes, she now only had one son.

It wasn’t as if his mother had been horribly fond of Eliza. Jed had heard her complain about his former fiancee on more than one occasion. But it had been more or less expected that Jed and Eliza would end up together, and the breaking off of the engagement had come as a shock to both families. The fact that Jed had quickly bounced back and married an opinionated Boston surgeon was just the final nail in the coffin. This box, although it can be interpreted as a gift–giving Jed some of his favorite ornaments to decorate for his first Christmas with his new wife–is meant to be a slap in the face.

Jed knew he should just leave it alone. He had ornaments, ornaments he’d bought by himself and with Mary, ornaments she had brought from her own past and snowy winters in Boston. He and Eliza had Christmas decorations, but they were never to Jed’s taste, and she took most of them with her to California, where Jed presumed she would either pay through the nose for a real Christmas tree shipped in from Washington, or maybe decorate a palm tree. Either way, he doesn’t need these ornaments or whatever psychological warfare his mother clearly has in mind. But he reached into the box anyway, spilling styrofoam peanuts onto the floor. Jo the cat trotted over from her spot by the fire and batted at a few experimentally, then hopped up on the couch and curled into a little gray ball beside Jed. He scratches her between the ears a few times, glad he will at least have company.

The first ornament he took out was clearly a school project, a snowman made from popsicle sticks, painted and glued together. A lopsided smile and carrot nose looked up at him, and Jed aimlessly flipped it over to the back, finding _Jedediah_ carefully printed in adult handwriting. A school project, then, from kindergarten most likely, if they didn’t trust him to write his name himself. The next one was made using a plastic spoon, an angel sporting a pipe-cleaner halo and a dress of felt. Jed smirked at the childish _JED_ scrawled on the back–a Sunday school creation, no doubt.

There were other homemade ones, one that he recalled doing as a book report project in the third grade and one that was a carefully constructed paper Nutcracker. There were store-bought ones, too. One by one, he pulled them out–the baseball with a red bow that he remembered getting the first Christmas after he played Little League, a simple red glass ball with his name personalized in white script, a little saxophone from his middle school band days and a snowman on skis from the year they’d spent Christmas in Aspen (never again, declared his mother). There were Disney ornaments depicting favorite characters, little silver bells (an heirloom from a long-deceased relative, Jed supposed), an ornament from his alma mater he’d gotten after his freshman year exams and a photo-frame ornament depicting baby Jed in a Santa hat far too big for him. Every Christmas ornament Jed had ever loved was right here in this box, and in spite of himself, he found tears prickling his eyes.

Beside him, Jo let out a little meow, and he turned to see her standing up and stretching just as the garage door opened. Jo jumped down and walked obediently over to her mistress, rubbing her head against Mary’s snow-covered legs and demanding, politely, to be petted. 

“Just a second, let me take my coat off at least!” Mary told her cat with a laugh. She looked over to Jed, her eyes widening when she saw the box. “What’s all that?”

Jed looked from the box to his new wife and smiled. “Do you want to go pick out a Christmas tree?”

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to go Jed-centric for this one! This is modern AU, but a different universe than my "popcorn" universe, since Jed and Mary are together and married in this. I couldn't resist a little nod to Little Women with Jo the cat. All the ornaments described can be found on my own real life Christmas tree. Title comes from "I'll Be Home for Christmas."


End file.
